Kunst Rock - Die Roten Punkte

Since its launch in 2006, the Sydney Festival's About an Hour program has functioned as the annual arts bash's affordable entry point and its showcase of the avant-garde.

This year, hosted in the cavernous Carriageworks, the program takes on the quality of a separate mini-festival, with shows programmed to allow punters to take in more than one event in an evening without dashing between venues.

The audience enters into something that's almost like an emergency situation, but then the performers meet them with flashlights and help them into the liferafts as if they need to be rescued.

Highlights of the 2013 About an Hour include cabaret-punk duo Die Roten Punkte, performing their new album Kunst Rock (January 11-12 at 10.30pm), and the immersive The Moment I Saw You I Knew I Could Love You from the British company Curious (January 11 at 5pm, 6.30pm, 8pm and 9.30pm; January 12 and 13 at 4pm, 5.30pm, 7pm and 8.30pm).

Rock on ... cabaret-punk duo Die Roten Punkte.

It's Dark Outside, a new work, explores the effects of dementia (January 11 at 5.30pm; January 12 and 13 at 3.30pm and 6pm; January 14 and 17 at 7pm and 9.30pm; January 15 at 7pm).

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''It's going to be so much fun when Otto and I get together and do a rock und roll concert,'' purrs Astrid Rot of Die Roten Punkte in a heavy German accent of questionable authenticity but admirable ripeness. Kunst Rock will unite the worlds of cabaret and rock concert, says Astrid's brother, Otto. ''Some people think it's like cabaret because we tell lots of stories about our lives,'' he says.

''I hear people laughing at what we have to say. I don't care. We are still a serious rock'n'roll band.''

Or at least as serious as a rock band can be with a bio that makes much of the death of their parents (eaten by lions, Otto says) and when the lead singer is wielding a keytar.

British company Curious are also out to challenge barriers separating art forms.

They are on a mission to change the traditional relationship between audience and a performer, too. The Moment I Saw You I Knew I Could Love You starts with ''the audience walking into a huge soundscape that sounds like you've been swallowed by a whale'', says Curious's co-creator of the work, Helen Paris.

''The audience enters into something that's almost like an emergency situation, but then the performers meet them with flashlights and help them into the liferafts as if they need to be rescued.'' Liferafts. ''Real ones,'' Paris says. ''Three of them. You might find yourself in a raft with people you don't know. Very interesting things can happen.''

Perth theatre-makers Tim Watts, Arielle Gray and Chris Isaacs are offering similarly novel experiences in their new show, It's Dark Outside, which follows an old man who, as the sun goes down, becomes lost in a surreal fantasy.

The multimedia piece blends puppetry, video projection and music. ''We've got all sorts of tricks to create a bit of magic,'' Gray says.

ABOUT AN HOUR

January 11-17, Carriageworks. For information and bookings, sydneyfestival.org.au. All tickets $35.

LIGETI MORPHED

January 11, 12 and 13

In Atmospheres - famously featured in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey - composer Gyorgy Ligeti organised every instrument in eerie-sounding sonic spectrums. But what would it sound like if this were performed on strings, electric guitar and turntables?

WRECK

Musical performances January 11, 12 and 13

Composer-artist Jon Rose has transformed the rusted hulk of a car into a multimedia experience. Rose will play the wreck as an instrument, coaxing rattles, creaks and squeaks into a metallic crescendo. Earplugs are recommended. Installation open January 11-17.

SYMPHONY

January 11-16

Stefan Gregory reimagines Beethoven's Seventh Symphony as a score to a dance work by Sydney company Legs on the Wall.